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Posts by Marcus

While you wait for more King of the Unknown, might I suggest checking out macabre adventures of occult detective Ezekiel King over at Midnight Mystery.net? It’s done by my good friend and talented gent, Bernie Gonzalez, who already has several stories up for download up at the site.

Looking to know more you say? Here’s my quick review of the first two stories “The Nature of the Beast” and “The Burning Bride of Calcutta”:

In the two Ezekiel King’s adventures I read, the hard-nosed detective’s cases included “The Nature of the Beast”, wherein his client Ms. Palmer requests Ezekiel’s help to end her recent affliction of vampirism. In ole Zeke’s second adventure, “Burning Bride of Calcutta”, he is hired to help a recently engaged man from Calcutta rid himself of his deceased first wife’s spirit who has been haunting him with increased frequency as the date of his second wedding fast approaches.

Both adventures end up having a few “Twilight Zone” type twists in store for the reader that, without spoiling anything, cause you to sympathize a bit with the antagonists of the tales by their respective story’s end. That’s not to say you won’t root for ole Ezekiel as he puts his supernatural experience to use to dispose of his tragic foes, but you’ll also be genuinely concerned with how he’ll get out of the latest pickle he got himself into as the odds are quickly stacked against him.

Drawing from the pulp comics of old, Ezekiel King is a character that gets hurt and bleeds, and feels legitimately challenged by the foes he encounters despite his tough guy appearance and characterization. Things don’t always go according to plan for this guy, and there are times when he has to throw out his initial strategy and play things by ear to take down his foe. For example, when ancient charms and trinkets ultimately have no effect on the fiery spectre in “Burning Bride of Calcutta”, Zeke has to dig deep into his occult bag of tricks to throw a Hail Mary to finally put a stop to the spirit.

On the art side of things, Bernie Gonzalez features storytelling from the Toth and Eisner school of comics, i.e., the guy knows his stuff and would rather tell you a story through comics instead of bombard you with in-your-face pin-up pages. That said, the art itself is also gorgeous to look at, and feels like some glorious love child of Samurai Jack’s Genndy Tartakovsky and animator/comicker Darwyn Cooke. In Bernie’s work you get the shapely figure work you find in a Tartakovsky production along with the bold brush work of a Darwyn Cooke comic. It’s an interesting style to behold, and you may find yourself reading through Ezekiel King’s adventures again just to get another look at the beautiful art that accompanies his macabre case files.

If you long for the days of classic horror where vampires were known for looking like ghoulish Noseferatu of the night instead of glittered cover models, and if you prefer your stories a bit on the pulpy side to enjoy while you sip on your day old cold black coffee and puff on your stale cigarettes, then “Midnight Mystery” is the comic for you. To make sure you have this comic to read on those cold, rainy evenings, when your stomach sours with that feeling of dread from the things that go bump in the night, head on over to Midnight Mystery.net to snag a copy and for more info on all things Ezekiel King. To check out a preview of the comic click here.

I was recently commissioned to create a pinup for Michael Vincent Bramley’s Sherbet Lock comic on Kickstarter. If you’re a fan of King of the Unknown (I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that your are since you’re on this website), then there’s a good chance you’ll dig Sherbet Lock, so head on over to the Kickstarter right here and check it out!

On a King of the Unknown related note, I know it seems like lately the only time I ever update anything on here is when its for a commission or some other piece of artwork I did leaving many of you to wonder “just when the hell is he going to update the site with a new KotU page?!” Well, to be honest I’ve been trying to find a print publisher for the comic so I can actually make some money doing this, and that way I wouldn’t have to take on so many other projects leaving me to focus on King. So I’ve been kind of holding back on updating the website with pages, because if there is a publisher that is interested then I’m not sure how keen they would be on publishing something that people can already get for free. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any new KotU pages up here, it’s just that there would be a delay between when it sees print and when I can put it online. That’s the plan anyway. So if there are any publishers out there reading this, and King of the Unknown tickles your fancy, then feel free to drop me a line

For any readers that still come back to the site with its lack of updates, I really want to thank you for hanging in there, and whenever the rest of the comic sees the light of day it will be worth it. I have been filling up notebooks with all the King of the Unknown stories I have planned, trust me when I say you haven’t seen anything yet.

Hey Gang! I should have some King of the Unknown news for you soon, but in the mean time I have some info on another project you might enjoy. The fine folks at Locust Moon Comics are at it again, this time with Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream. They have a Kickstarter going on for the project right now that features some pretty mind blowing talent on the book (and surprisingly me…not sure how I managed to sneak on there, but I’m pretty stoked to be a part of this project). Throw your money at them to get your hands on what is surely going to be the most beautiful comic you see all year and head on over to their Kickstarter.